Political, economic moves spur core city's comeback

So, what has changed? What's causing the reversal of a half-century-long dynamic that saw almost anyone who could afford it flee to the land of turf-building and shopping malls before the children could read the Sunday comics? The origins of today's boom lie in local tradition and history. But it took other factors -- an aging population, smarter builders, a booming economy, lower crime rates and a certain souring of the suburban dream -- to deepen the city's appeal and extend it to a crucial new group: empty nesters in search of a stimulating life. Chicago long has attracted recent college graduates, people in their 20s and early 30s. Even as the city hemorrhaged hundreds of thousands of middle-class residents in the 1960s and 1970s, generations of young adults were exposed to city life, either because they took a job downtown, lived in trendy Old Town or Sandburg Village or attended school there. While the total number of jobs downtown has remained about even over the past 20 years, attendance at Loop-area colleges and universities has grown. Ten schools with major downtown campuses saw enrollment climb 16% to 76,355 students between 1988 and 1999, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education. "Chicagoans never abandoned the entire city, like they did in Denver and Dallas," says prominent downtown housing developer Daniel McLean, president of MCL Cos. Instead, a lot of folks were exposed to city life and had a good experience. The city's long-term appeal to young adults planted the seed of today's downtown boom. But it took several other factors, which have come into play since the early '90s, for that seed to grow into bloom: * The booming economy. It gave people the money to buy $400,000 condominiums and $600,000 townhouses close to Soldier Field, Symphony Center and that hot new restaurant. "We're reaping the rewards of the repositioning of the Midwest economy, and Chicago is at the top of that pack," says Jon DeVries, principal consultant in the real estate and hospitality services group of Chicago-based Arthur Andersen LLP. * Plummeting crime rates. The number of reported violent crimes citywide -- murder, robbery, aggravated battery and criminal sexual assault -- declined to an estimated 57,000 last year from 90,522 in 1991, according to the Chicago Police Department. That helped change perceptions of the city as a dangerous place. * City Hall. Mayor Richard Daley has thrown open the subsidy spigots for everything from housing at Central Station to a shopping center on Canal Street to restaurants, shops and hotels downtown. Though such spending remains controversial, Chicago's willingness to help "is not something we saw in other communities" says Michael Mallon, vice-president of real estate at the Dominick's Finer Foods division of California-based Safeway Inc. -- and it made a difference. * Demographics. As recently as 1970, 44% of U.S. households included at least one person under age 18, according to Bruce Katz, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. The figure is now 32% and likely to drop to 28% by the end of the decade. "We're no longer a country of households with a station wagon, a dog and three kids," Mr. Katz says. As a result, the lack of good schools -- arguably the city's biggest single drawback -- is less important than it once was. * Congestion. Dan Fields, the senior reporter at Shadow Broadcast Services, which produces Chicago-area traffic reports for radio, says morning and evening rush periods both have added nearly an hour since he began reporting 21 years ago. And the reverse commute out of Chicago is nearly as bad as the conventional trip in. If you want to be assured of beating highway congestion in the morning, Mr. Fields advises, you have to hit the road early -- no later than 5:30 a.m. * Anti-growth fervor. Though citizen crusades against suburban sprawl and highway-driven growth usually are associated with places like California and Minnesota, major pockets of anti-growth sentiment have developed in sections of Lake and Kane counties, notes real estate trend-watcher G. Tracy Cross, principal in Schaumburg-based Tracy Cross & Associates Inc. At the same time, the region's geographic job center has remained near O'Hare International Airport. As a result, developers in search of greenfield sites for lower-cost starter housing have had to go so far west that new areas to the east -- including much of Chicago -- now are competitive in terms of commuting times.